Monday, April 30, 2012

On my travels around the UK I'm always on the lookout for interesting, unique, odd and obscure things to see, do and visit.

During a conversation about Littlehampton and Crazy Golf last year I was told that the town is home to the Longest Bench in the World. In fact, the people who told me about it were the very same people who designed it! I made a note to visit the bench when I eventually made it to Littlehampton.

Looking at the information board and map on the seafront I noticed that the Longest Bench was not too far from where I had parked and was very close to one of the Miniature Golf course locations I was looking for at Banjo Road, so I headed along for a quick sit down.

A view of the Longest Bench in the World, built in July 2010, stretching along the Littlehampton Promenade

The bench is not as I expected it to be. I imagined that it would be one long bench like a Park Bench. But it's a very higgledy piggledy construction (at least at either end) and stretches along for some distance in a slightly more regular fashion along the promenade.

I'm looking forward to a return trip to Littlehampton with Emily to further explore the town, visit the amusements and Harbour Park and play the many Minigolf courses there. I'll also have another nice sit down on the Longest Bench in the World and take in the views of the beach and sea.

On our previous south coast roadtrips Emily and I have run out of time on our way to Littlehampton and the closest we've reached on either side of the town is Felpham, near Bognor Regis and Worthing. On Sunday 22nd April I made it there, but didn't get to play any of the minigolf courses as I arrived a bit too late for some of them and a bit too early in the season for the others!

Driving into Littlehampton I spotted a Brown Tourist Sign that showed 'Putting' and pointed me in the direction of Maltravers Park. Unfortunately I couldn't see the course, it may have been too early in the season for the course to have been marked out.

Littlehampton (Maltravers Park) - There was no Putting there

Brown Tourist Sign to Maltravers Park in Littlehampton

After parking up I started walking along the promenade and spotted a big sign over the entrance of the Sharksville Adventure Golf course at Harbour Park. I only managed to get a glimpse of the course through the locked gate.

A view of the Sharksville Adventure Golf course through the gate at Harbour Park in Littlehampton

The shark on the sign outside Sharksville Adventure Golf has a Bow Tie on!?

Strolling a little further down the road I came to the the Western Putting minigolf on Banjo Road. This set-up is home to a Putting course, a Crazy Golf course (of the Swedish Felt variety) and the only Crazy Snooker course I know of in the UK! I'm looking forward to heading back in the peak season to get a game on all three of these courses, especially the Crazy Snooker as it's a game I've not yet managed to play. While visiting Vienna, Austria in 2010 I did see another of these courses - the game is also known as Pit-Pat (and Hindernis Billard). There was also an advert for this type of game (although it was called 'Crazy Pool' there) on the prom in Skegness, but the tables were long gone.

Western Putting on Banjo Road in Littlehampton - home to a Putting Course, Crazy Golf and a Crazy Snooker course!

A view of the Western Putting Minigolf Centre on Banjo Road in Littlehampton

The Putting course at Western Putting in Littlehampton

A little further down the seafront is Norfolk Gardens, home to a Pitch & Putt course, a 9-hole Adventure Golf course, the Putting Green Cafe, Bowling Greens, Tennis Courts and Miniature Railway! Norfolk Gardens are open all year round.

Norfolk Gardens in Littlehampton - home to a Pitch & Putt course and a 9-hole Adventure Golf

A view of the Adventure Golf course at Norfolk Gardens in Littlehampton

A view of the Adventure Golf course at Norfolk Gardens in Littlehampton

The Putting Green Cafe at Norfolk Gardens

The Pitch & Putt Mini Golf at Norfolk Gardens in Littlehampton

The last of the Minigolf courses I hunted for was at Mewsbrook Park. Unfortunately I couldn't find a course there, but the Miniature Railway line does pass through the Pitch & Putt course that sits between Norfolk Gardens & Mewsbrook Park - the end of the line is in Mewsbrook Park, with a station and turnaround point in Norfolk Gardens.

I couldn't find a Minigolf course in Mewsbrook Park. But Norfolk Gardens and the two Minigolf courses there are just next door to it

A view of the very well maintained Mewsbrook Park in Littlehampton

Many of the Miniature Golf course facilities in Littlehampton are operated by Inspire Leisure. They also operate some of the Minigolf courses in nearby Bognor Regis. Both towns have plenty of courses on offer and are a mixture of Crazy Golf, Adventure Golf, Mini Golf, Miniature Golf, Putting and Crazy Snooker!

I'm looking forward to returning to Littlehampton in the future to have a look around while things are open and playable.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

En route from Worthing to Littlehampton on Sunday 22nd April 2012 I popped into Rustington Golf Centre in Angmering, West Sussex where I'd seen online and in a leaflet that they have an 18-hole Putting Green.

Putting Course at Rustington Golf Centre, Angmering

Rustington Golf Centre also has three Golf courses - an 18-hole Par-70 course, a 9-hole Par-3 and a 3-hole Par-3 course.

Minigolf to return to the rooftop of iconic London department store this summer.

Reading Fabulous magazine in The Sun newspaper today I read that Selfridges in London will be installing a Crazy Golf course on the roof as part of The Big British Bang - a celebration of all things British spanning the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympic Games in 2012.

You can see photos of the 1930's Miniature Golf course on the rooftop garden in a Daily Mail website story here. A mention of the rooftop 'mini golf' course is made on the Selfridges Wikipedia entry too. Having a look for further information online I spotted a mention of the planned miniature golf course at Selfridges on the website of eFIG, the trade association for the Interior Landscaping Industry.

For the 2012 minigolf season the BMGA ranking systems have been amended. The BMGA Order of Merit has been split into two separate lists - the BMGA Strokeplay Order of Merit & the BMGA Matchplay Order of Merit. The calculation of the BMGA Season-only Rankings list remains the same.

- The BMGA Season-only Rankings are separate to the official BMGA Strokeplay & Matchplay Order of Merit Ranking lists and are based only on the current season’s results

- The official BMGA Strokeplay rankings are calculated by adding a player’s top four scores of the current season to the top two scores from the previous season

- The official BMGA Matchplay rankings are made up from the results from the previous two seasons of the BMGA British Matchplay Championships and BMGA British Doubles Championships, along with the results from the current season

Since that first appearance on the BMGA Tour I have competed in 76 BMGA competitions, winning five of them. I've had six runner-up finishes, three third-places and 23 other top ten finishes. In the five years as a BMGA player I have had the honour of representing Great Britain in two international minigolf tournaments overseas (the 2008 WMF Nations Cup in Finland and the 2011 WMF Nations Cup in Sweden) and at the 2011 WMF World Adventure Golf Masters in Hastings. I have also represented England in five World Crazy Golf Championships, reaching the finals on three occasions.

Bar Billiards at The Swan in Worthing - The well lit and nicely positioned table

We arrived and immediately saw the table in a good location to the left of the entrance. We ordered our drinks and decided on a format for the matches. The pub is a competition table and according to the notice board next to the table it's a location for matches in the Worthing & District Bar Billiards League.

Bar Billiards at The Swan in Worthing - the rules & league information

In the first match-up Chris ‘Who’ Harding of the Midlands Minigolf Club took on Scott ‘Donkey Gringo’ Lancley of the Kent Minigolf Club. Both players had played the game before, but neither had picked up a Bar Billiards cue in a number of years. After a quick rules reminder the game was underway and Chris built-up an early lead against Scott. The final result of the match was a 1,550 to 460 win to Chris, cleaning up the last two balls so no sudden-death shot was required.

Chris lines-up a shot in his match against Scott

My opponent was Paul ‘Johnson Paul Johnson’ Johnson who would be playing his first-ever game of Bar Billiards. In a very closely fought match-up there were quite a few white pegs knocked over by me before the final shoot-out. The final ball available was the red, but unfortunately for Paul the scores stood at 870 to 460 at the shoot-out stage and even if he had sunk the red he’d have only managed to reach 860.

Scott in action as Paul looks on

The third/fourth place play-off match saw Donkey Gringo take on The Johnson. Paul did manage to score 200 with his last shot, but it wasn’t enough to win and the game ended with a score-line of 710 to 520 in Scott’s favour.

The final match was a battle between me and Chris and saw me receive a new Bar Billiards nickname – The Black Peg – due to my innate ability to wipe out a half-decent break by knocking over the dreaded black peg. The final was won by Chris 840 to 700 to make him the side-tourney champion of Worthing.

The evening also saw the official handing over of the Midlands Minigolf ClubCaptain’s armband to Paul ‘The Overtaker’ Johnson who takes charge of the MMGC from departing Captain Chris ‘Who’ Harding, who has led the team for a number of years and captained the MMGC to national tournament victory in the 2008 BMGA British Club Championships in Stratford-upon-Avon.

The Captaincy Handover for the Midlands Minigolf Club

A shell-shocked Paul 'The Capitan' Johnson with his new MMGC Captain's armband

With Scott carrying our team we picked up the win 560 to nil after The Capitans had wiped-out a score of 350 in the sudden-death shoot-out at the 200-hole. In this match we had decided that each team had to go for the 200-hole on the final shot.

I play a shot

The Swan Inn was a nice spot to spend a Saturday night and there was a DJ and Disco going on, which provided a nice soundtrack to the competition. It’s also the first time I’ve played a game (of Bar Billiards, or anything) to the song “Nellie the Elephant”!!!

It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen any Wacky Waving Arm-Flailing Inflatable Tube-Men on my travels. However, Emily being the world traveller that she is, has spotted two (and a half’ish) of them over in Bangkok, Thailand.

The first ones, that aren’t really the fun type of Airdancers made ‘famous’ by Al Harrington, were spotted outside the Times Square shopping plaza on Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok.

The second lot were ‘real’ Wacky Waving Arm-Flailing Inflatable Tube-Men and Emily spotted them attacking passers-by as she travelled in a taxi in Bangkok! I'm not sure what they were advertising though.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Last Sunday's BMGA British Masters competition was filmed by the team at 2 Dog Imaging. The great video can be seen below. Watch for me making a nice shot from 1m 20s onwards, it's a shame it was only a recovery shot for a score of 4 on the very tough 16th hole!

One of the great things about me and Emily’s travels around the UK’s seasides is that we get to buy some lovely seafood. We’re very often in Hastings, East Sussex for minigolf competitions and we always make sure to visit The Net Shop Jellied Eel Bar on Rock-A-Nore Road for the excellent Oysters they serve there.

Mr. Seafood was a very nice chap and has a good selection of seafood on offer, including Oysters, Prawns, Crayfish Tails and more. He’s also on Twitter (@_mrseafood) and has posted some humorous updates including this one that made me chuckle.

We’ve visited 170 seaside resorts and towns to date, but not nearly enough of them have seafood stalls like Worthing and Hastings. We have had great seafood at Osborne Brothers in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, and its neighbouring town Southend-on-Sea has some good seafood stalls too.

Richard Gottfried playing the 9th hole at the BMGA British Masters at the Splash Point Mini Golf course in Worthing
- photo by Marion Homer of the KMGC

The 2012 British Masters was Richard’s 76th official BMGA Tour competition appearance since he made his debut in the BMGA British Masters tournament in Southend-on-Sea in 2007 when he finished in 24th spot of 28 players. His three other previous results in the event have seen him finish in 22nd and 23rd places in 30 player fields and 9th in the 2011 event.

The tournament was won by Oxford’s Michael Smith with a score of 137(-7). Cambridge’s James Rutherford was runner-up after defeating Brighton’s Peter Emmerson at the fourth hole of a sudden-death play-off after both players had tied on 144(par).

Richard said “Worthing’s Splash Point Mini Golf is recognised as one of the toughest courses on the BMGA Tour, but it’s always a pleasure to visit. I had hoped to repeat my play from the 2010 British Matchplay Championships at the course with a good finish, but it wasn’t to be. I was pleased with my consistency though, with a difference of only two shots between my rounds I just seemed to have one bad hole per round.”

Walking around Allen House Grounds I saw that they had a Jabberwocky Maze (it wasn’t difficult). Ollie later told me that the grounds are home to a Golf Putting Green course in the summer season and the websites for Allen House Grounds and Allen House Pavilion have more details on the course.

Allen House Gardens - home to a Jabberwocky Maze and a Minigolf Putting Green

The Jabberwocky Maze

With Wednesday 18th April 2012 marking 100 days until the start of the London 2012 Olympic Games the date of 18/04/12 also marked an unspecified countdown until the ‘Guildford Games’ – a multi-sport event ‘planned’ to take place in the summer and consisting of the disciplines of Minigolf, Darts, Bar Billiards and ‘some sort of game involving the Castle’.

As part of the preparation for the Guildford Games, Ollie and I headed to the Royal Oak pub for a few games of Bar Billiards. The table is in a good position in the pub and was in very good condition indeed. Each of the tables I’ve played to date have had their own subtle differences and I really enjoyed playing the table at the Royal Oak – perhaps it was because the Mushroom didn’t wobble precariously at all on rebound shots at the 200-hole!

The Royal Oak Pub in Guildford has Free Bar Billiards on a Sunday

We decided to play a best-of-3 games match and in game one I defeated Ollie 1,300 to 480 after holing-out with a white ball to the 100-hole in the shootout.

Partway through the game the barman mentioned to us that we were playing the game incorrectly, as the Royal Oak Rules use a variation whereby the red ball is replaced on the spot and a white ball is used as the cue ball each time the red ball is potted. After a quick look online we found these ‘variant’ rules (amongst others) on the excellent Masters Traditional Games website.

Playing a shot on the Royal Oak's Bar Billiards table

Our second game saw us invoke the “R’oak Rules” and the game was a very close fought battle. The match once again went to a sudden-death shootout. Ollie managed to score 100 by potting the white ball with an 'in off' the Mushroom on the right of the table, but was still on the losing end of a 1,400 to 1,100 scoreline.

Ollie plays a shot on the Royal Oak's Bar Billiards table - note the use of 'Royal Oak Rules'

After play at the Royal Oak we headed to Guildford Castle for a look around. The Castle Grounds are home to a Bowls Club – perhaps Lawn Bowls will be an event in the Guildford Games too.

Guildford Castle

We then moved on to Stoke Park for a look at the Minigolf course and new Table Tennis table that has been installed. We found that ahead of the new summer season the 12-hole Stoke Park Minigolf course has had a lick of paint on the obstacles and also had a new ‘obstacle’ added in the shape of a Tractor!?

The new Tractor on the Stoke Park Swedish Felt Minigolf course

Despite my 'retirement' from competitive Table Tennis/Ping Pong/Wiff Waff/Pong I brought my Ping Pong bats and balls along to give the Stoke Park Table Tennis table a go. After a knock-up our best-of-3 games Aqua Table Tennis match began and Ollie took a quick lead before winning the first game 9-6. After switching sides Ollie put his ‘local knowledge’ to good use and served to the puddle on my side of the table to pick up a 9-7 win and victory in the match. This was despite my best attempts to unnerve ‘The Machine' on the journey to Stoke Park!

The new Table Tennis table in Guildford's Stoke Park

Playing some Ping Pong at Stoke Park

The final game we played (and one that will be very unlikely to make an appearance in the Guildford Games) was 'Ping Pong Crazy Golf'. After several unsuccessful hole-in-one attempts on the Net hole and the Flat Loop (with scores ranging from 4 to 12!?) Ollie scored the only Ace of our ‘round’ on hole number four.

Ollie lines up a shot for a hole-in-one in the new game of Ping Pong Crazy Golf

Playing some Ping Pong Crazy Golf on Stoke Park's Minigolf course

We then went for a wander to Guildford Lido to see if we could see the Minigolf course in there. We could, but couldn’t play it as the Lido is only open from May. A swimming event is a possible inclusion in the competition calendar for the Guildford Games too!

Instead of playing any Minigolf to finish out the afternoon's entertainment, Ollie pointed out the Giant Guildford Beetle that is amongst some trees beyond the Lido!!!

A gate that is lacking a fence. And a Gigantic Beetle beyond it!

Getting scared off of a Giant Beetle in Guildford

Commenting on the day’s sporting endeavours Ollie said "It was great to see Squire finally make a return to Guildford after the previously aborted attempts. We managed to fit quite a few sporting activities in to the day and it proved to be a good test for the up-and-coming Guildford Games. We are going to need to tweak a few of the rules ahead of the event though, particularly after Richard's run-in with the barman over the correct use of the red ball in bar billiards.

The Machine added "I was pleased that I managed to beat him at the new form of Ping Pong despite an extremely unsettling incident in the car on the way to the park. He took his defeat well though and I'm pleased he seemed genuinely delighted when I showed him a massive sculpture of a beetle."